A Selection of Hip-Hop Albums You Can Bring Home to Mom

A Selection of Hip-Hop Albums You Can Bring Home to Mom

No matter your parents’ political persuasion, hip-hop can be a hard sell when it comes to co-opting the stereo at home — liberally inclined parents will complain about the genre’s perceived misogyny, glorification of crime, and naughty language, while conservatives will rant and rave about… well, basically the exact same things, albeit for different reasons. Still, with the release of The Roots’ undun this week, we got to thinking about hip-hop that can help change — or at least — challenge these broad conceptions. Here’s a few of our picks. If your parents aren’t quite ready to embraced the Based God quite yet, you can get them started with the records you’ll find after the jump.

You generally can’t go wrong with Native Tongues-affiliated bands. Their general lyrical positivity — along with the distinct lack of “bitches,” “hoes,” “gats,” and other gangsta conceits in their rhymes — will go down well at home. And if mom asks suspiciously whether the “three feet high” bit is some sort of allusion to getting stoned, you can reply with a clear conscience that it’s actually a lyrical allusion to the Johnny Cash song “Five Feet High and Rising.” Result!